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Character Creation
After watching the EQ2 intro movie, your first activity will be to create a character. If you've already created one, then feel free to skip ahead to The Game Interface guide. Choosing Your Race :Main Article: Character Races Your first choice is to select a race and gender. EQ2 gives you a huge list of fantasy races to choose from: * '''Good Races:' Dwarf, Fae, Froglok, Halfling, High Elf, Wood Elf * Neutral Races: Barbarian, Erudite, Gnome, Half Elf, Human, Kerran * Evil Races: Arasai, Dark Elf, Iksar, Ogre, Ratonga, Sarnak, Troll Race has little bearing upon what your character is capable of, and gender has no effect at all. * Each race has certain strengths and weaknesses in their starting attributes, but these strengths and weaknesses will be unimportant by the time you progress to the mid-levels. * Each race gets certain innate abilities, and certain racial traits to choose from. These are described in the Main Article. * Each race can choose any class that is available. Your alignment will restrict which classes are available to you (and your race may dictate your aligment). See: Race comparison Customize your appearance as you like, and then move on to selecting your city and class. A Note About Your Appearance EQ2 has two sets of character models available to choose from. The "alternate character models" were produced by Sony's Japanese studio, more recently than the original character models, and have an Asian theme. Many players prefer the alternate models. You will choose whether you want to see the world with alternate character models or not (see the Options Window). Other players will choose whether they see your character in "original" or "alternate" form. Therefore, you can customize your character's "alternate appearance" separately, after you reach the Character Selection screen. Choosing Your City All starting cities are either Good or Evil. Your choice of city is restricted by your race. Almost all races have 2-3 cities to choose from. Only five races are restricted to a single city. Good Cities Evil Cities Qeynos Kelethin Freeport Neriak, City of Hate Gorowyn Your race may have already determined your alignment (see Race comparison). But if you chose a neutral race, then your selection of city will determine your alignment - and which classes are available to you. Recommended Cities Your choice of city is probably the biggest factor in how much you'll enjoy your first 20 levels. To put it simply, the original two cities from EQ2's release are less player-friendly than the newer three cities. For your first experience in EQ2, we recommend that you choose one of the three newer cities: Kelethin for good players, Gorowyn or Neriak, City of Hate for evil characters. Choosing Your Class :Main Article: Character Classes EQ2 offers a lot of variety when it comes to character class. You'll have 16 adventure classes to choose from: 8 classes that are specific to your alignment, and 8 more classes that are independent of alignment. The last 8 classes are unavailable to you because they belong to the opposite alignment. EQ2 classes are organized in a symmetrical fashion. There are four major archetypes of classes: Fighter, Mage, Priest, and Scout. Each archetype contains two neutral classes (available to anyone), two good classes, and two evil classes. Since you've already chosen your alignment at this point, you'll have four classes available to choose from in each archetype. Fighter Classes Mage Classes Fighters are the most straight-forward classes to play. They have terrific defense, so they can withstand a lot of abuse from enemies, but they also have decent damage output. They can switch between two stances at will, choosing between higher damage output or higher defense. Combat is interactive and (unlike some other games) each fighter class has several utility abilities. * Berserker - offensive warrior * Bruiser - high damage light tank * Guardian - defensive warrior * Monk - group-friendly light tank * Paladin - the healing tank * Shadowknight - the tank-mage Mages are challenging and dramatic classes to play. They are fragile, and can only wear cloth armor. Each mage gets a diverse set of spells, and a few new spells every level. High damage and powerful effects are characteristic of mage spells. Mages deal damage from a distance, while trying to avoid being damaged themselves, and each mage class gets different tools to accomplish this. * Coercer - master of charming * Conjurer - strong pet & high damage * Illusionist - master of crowd control * Necromancer - strong pet & versatility * Warlock - master of area damage * Wizard - master of nukes Priest Classes Scout Classes Priests are healers, and each priest class excels at a different style of healing. Some priest classes are more versatile, while others are more focussed on defense and preservation, but all priests seek to win combat by outlasting the enemy. While priests can deliver damage to their enemies, they have been balanced such that they must necessarily cast healing spells to win most fights. * Defiler - offensive shaman * Fury - offensive druid * Inquisitor - offensive cleric * Mystic - defensive shaman * Templar - defensive cleric * Warden - defensive druid Scouts are challenging in a different way from mages. They deal great amounts of damage, usually from close proximity to their enemy, but they can only withstand attacks for a moderate amount of time. Their fights are short and intense, and some of their attacks require repositioning around the enemy. Scouts perform at their best when a friend is available to hold the enemy's attention. * Assassin - positional attacker * Brigand - offensive rogue * Dirge - melee buffing bard * Ranger - master of ranged attacks * Swashbuckler - versatile rogue * Troubador - caster buffing bard Regardless of which class you choose, you'll be able to solo and group. One area that Everquest 2 has done fairly well in is class balance. Every class is capable of fulfilling its archetype's role in a group, and every class has the tools necessary to kill monsters solo. Of course, some classes kill monsters much faster than others, and certain classes are more highly valued in groups/raids. But every EQ2 class has at least moderate soloability as well as group utility. Choosing Your Server Finally, choose the Game Server that your character will reside on. Here are some things to keep in mind when choosing a server: * EQ2 will automatically recommend a low-load server, but we recommend that you choose a high-load server for your first experience. This will give you the most fellow players to interact with and learn from. Unlike some other games, EQ2 servers never have queues to login, and player grief is rare, so don't be shy. * If you're playing during off-peak hours, then the servers will probably all be listed at "Light" load. To get a good idea of which servers are busiest, create your character during North American prime time. * Once you've chosen a server, the only way to move your character to another server is to pay $50 for the Character Transfer Service. * You may be interested in PvP (player versus player), but we suggest that you create your first character on a PvE server. Learn the EQ2 ropes in a safe place before you enter the dangerous world of PvP. * Exchange servers allow the buying and selling of items/characters for real cash. Characters on these servers can never be moved to other servers. Be very sure that you want this kind of server before you choose it.